HEREFORDSHIRE TREE FORUM

Report of meeting of 14thJune 2013 2.30 pm,

Bulmer Foundation Rooms @ Hereford Cider Museum

Attended:

Cllr Felicity Norman Co-Chair (FN), Mike Townsend, Woodland TrustCo-Chair (MT); Jon Stokes, Tree Council (JS); James Bisset, HC (JB); Lewis Goldwater, Herefordshire Nature Trust (LG); NicholaGeeson, BreintonCLP (NG), Angela Pendleton, LeominsterTC (AP), Richie Cotterill, KLEEN (RC), Cllr Len Tawn, HCC (LT), Cllr Liz Chave, HC (LC), Sheila Milne, HfdChristian Ecology Group (SM), Trevor Swindells, HiB (TS), Dave Marshall, Bulmer Foundation (DM)Mo Burns, HfdCivic Society (MB), Cllr Anthony Powers, (AP);

Apologies: Cllr Adrian Bridges; Sally Williams, (Kington TC);Steve Ashworth (Wyevale Nurseries); Jeremy Evans (Woodland Trust); KatieEastaugh, Cllr PhilEdwards, Mayor; Francesca Griffiths (H Nature Trust)Ben Nash (CPRE); Mike Abbott (Living Wood); Jesse Norman MP; Gillian Bulmer; Kate Gathercole(New Leaf); Nic Howes; Geof Tarring (HC); Stephen Knight; David Lovelace.

  1. FN (Chair) asked for any matters arising from last meeting’s minutes – none were raised. One amendment to minutes–N Geeson represented Breinton Community-led Plan, not Here for Hereford. Minutes accepted.
  2. JB introduced the guest speaker – Jon Stokes of the Tree Council, to explain the potential benefits ofa Tree Warden Network for Herefordshire.

Background: 180 organisations nationally are members of the Tree Council, signed up to the shared objective to ‘making trees matter’. The TC runs National Tree Week. They launched the Tree Warden scheme in 1990 and now have 8 thousand volunteers across 130 Local Authority networks. For the last 25 years Tree Wardens have been LA/Parish Council-led. Now due to political changes, communities/independent sector are playing a moreproactive role in establishing and managing schemes, often in partnership with their LAs.

Tree wardensnetworks locally have 4 key roles:

1Establish 1 key local person/tree champion to manage the area’s team and liaise with the Tree Council.

2Develop as a team – they are the eyes and ears of the local area, spotting issues as they arise ie liaising on TPO’s, monitoring developers good or bad practice, reporting tree damage etc etc.

3Identify practical opportunities for tree planting via liaising with statutory and independent sectors.

4Survey and map their local tree stock ie collating info on what’s in their patch.

The Tree Council supports networks by offering comprehensive training courses, conferences, info on a range of subjects ie pest and disease; planting advice; debunking tree ‘myths’ such as ivy, trees and certain death etc… TC undertakes specific projects ie ‘Protection of heritage trees’; JS thought this would be of especial value for Herefordshire as we have ‘an undervalued world class resource of premier trees in county which badly needed special recognition and often attention, due to being ‘at risk’. (Holme Lacy Pear was mentioned again as the ‘oldest pear tree’ in country and currently at risk). Generally, he felt only the obvious ones such as in places like Moccas Park etc were well known to non-experts, which was a great pity.

JS warned of a range of increasing dangers to our nation’s tree stock: more trees will be lost through climate change as well as pests and diseases. Much more monitoring of an area’s tree stock was needed by everyone because of diseases such as Ash dieback etc; loss of gardens due imminent change to planning laws – see National Planning Policy Framework–allowing larger extensions without need to go to planning; Developers of all types always needed monitoring for often poor work practices that could endanger tree stock, and they should be stronglyencouraged to replant/landscape to maximise the opportunities to increase urban green infrastructure.

He recommended two reports as essential reading: National Tree Safety Group Report and Biodiversity Report 2020. The Localism ACT 2011 has given communities new rights which could benefit the work of a local tree warden network.

JSended his talk by highlighting opportunities for creative thinking with fallen mature trees on public spaces for instance. In one county the TW had succeeded in persuading the LA to turn a felled tree into a play/climbing frame rather than disposing of the wood –cheap, popular and of great benefit to wildlife.

Summing up his main points he said: The appropriate organisation or partnership that takes the TW idea forward will need to set up a working group to progress a TW scheme. Ideally this would have representatives of all the parties involved including from the Local Authority, but he reiterated it would be important to move fast if Herefordshire is to take advantage of its emerging Neighbourhood Plans.

JB confirmed he had established a Herefordshire TW networkover a decade ago, but due to most TWs preferring to work solely within their own patch, it had not proved cost-effective for the LA to organise training courses at a county level because of low take-up, so the scheme became unsustainable. In the 1980’s/90’s considerable funding had been available, but ‘Awards for All’ was one of the few grant sources on offercurrently.

He emphasised JS’s point that a TW network has to have central coordination, but the training elements needed could be accessed via other organisations. Linking into Neighbourhood Plans and other community-led initiatives will be essential. Sam Banks is the NP lead for Herefordshire –FN would contact. JS reiterated his view that as Herefordshire’s Neighbourhood Plan process is advanced, it was even more important to get a tree-champion initiative within Parishes launched ASAP. JB confirmed that all new community orchards will have to be community managed. An example will be the new eco- development at Kingstone; and all such initiatives will require appropriate advice on tree planting and design, and good maintenance practices etc to preclude loss of trees, poor cropping, subsidence issues, etc.

Q & A’s:

1MT: How many TWs needed to make a viable county-wide scheme? JB: Herefordshire has 200 Wards so ultimately 70-80 TWs, tapped into 20-30 Neighbourhood Plans would be ideal. Not all wardens would in practice, feed back to the central coordinator, but an active warden in 100 Parishes within the next 10 years would be worth aiming for.

2AP made the point that the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) who ran the national ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood ‘ (IYN) campaign could usefullysupport the TW programme by embedding it within their campaign criteria? JS confirmed the Tree Council were having ongoing discussions with RHS and he agreed it would help the TW campaign greatly.

3NG: Tree surveys to survey local tree health are happening nationally and the Lottery funded Open Air Laboratories Network (OPAL) Tree Survey packs are excellent resources for Parishes. Breinton is using them. Available to download or order hard copies free:

4MT noted Herefordshire was challenging due to spread out low population, but rich with potential partners/agencies to support a TW scheme. JS: Surrey’s TWs have been an independent charity for a decade. Using a paid coordinator was one option to explore.

5MT asked that an open invitation goes with the minutes to all HTF members to come to the next HTF meeting of steering group on 9th July 2.30pm, Shire Hall, Hereford to join the discussion on how to move this proposal forward collectively.

6AP made the point it will be important to get schools involved with tree warden scheme.

  1. Tree Policy update: HC had commissioned Jerry Ross to draft a Tree Policy for Council.JB confirmed this would be going out to consultation June/July. It will only cover HC-managed land, not privately-owned land. The TP would be referenced by the National Planning Policy Framework and orchards would also be included.

JB confirmed the 20 mature sycamores on Foley Trading estate in Hereford were illegally removed.

The matter was now in the hands of the police and Enforcement Team.

Juliet Wheatley, Conservation Team Leader had given a presentation on value of tree policies, conservation and green infrastructure to Councillors recently, but as not all were present, FN suggested sheshould be invited to repeat the exercise.

  1. National Tree Week – h.trees 23rd November – 1st December: JB to design the h.tree week programme again. The week’s events will be advertised widely including on the Tree Forum, National Tree Council, New Leaf, Herefordshire Council and Bulmer Foundation websites, as last year.

MB to be the point of contact between groups and JBso please send details of activities to be publicised to . Copy deadline is Saturday 14thSeptember.

RC – Tony Norman, who has restored Mallory Woods from a plantation, has offered it for a Tree Week walk; RC suggested Myforestsupported tree project at Kington could be rolled out across county? See Forum feedback below.

JS suggested using a theme for Tree Week to give the event a ‘message’ ie heritage trees?

He confirmed there was still money available from the Big Tree Plant fund for communities with an urban focus:

and for schools: for-schools All for discussion on 9th July;

  1. Website update: Dave Lovelace is now ready to upload material and links onto the HTF website ready for June launch, so please send material to him at  The success of the site will be dependent on forum member organisations using it as a shared resource to promote trees and green infrastructure development across Herefordshire, and contributing information. Thanks to DL for hosting and designing, Bulmer Foundation andHereford Civic Society for funding its set-up, and Averil Clothier (for BF) for kindly agreeing to manage the site.
  1. Forum Feedback:

JB reported the new HC preferred bidder to take over the Amey contract was Balfour Beatty. Official handover to new contractor will be September 1st. It was expected there would be continuity of most staff. AP asked if new contract included more flexibility in approach to public /privatecontracts? JB confirmed this was being discussed at strategic level.

TS reported Hereford in Bloom is in discussions with Stanhope over their landscaping plans for the Old Market Site. Hereford Futures are currently in charge of tree planting and maintenance, but he expressed concern over the longer term care and maintenance of the site’s green infrastructure. He hoped a sound long-term maintenance/care plan will be in place to manage the new tree stock on what will be an important public space for the city. The Design plan for ESG’s GI should come before the local Councillors soon Cllr LC noted. She said Cllrs. expected to see a high quality design for this site. Cllr LT had received an invite on 28th June to Stanhope/Hereford Futures meeting. He would emphasise the importance of quality, quantity and positioning of trees for this key space. JS cautioned against local communities/LAs allowing developers to chose the tree stock/type of species etc themselves as they very often imported poor quality trees from dubious sources for cost-saving reasons, rather than the better practice of locally sourced stock from reputable suppliers- although even then there was a danger of lack of provenance being an issue, so always demand a guarantee on locally sourced stock. Working with Developers was a good example of the need for a coherent Tree Strategy for the county that would promote good working practices and guidance.

DM explained the Small orchard idea being worked up by Cider Museum currently – hopefully for planting in time for Tree Week 2013. This would cover a small stretch of land on the edge of Whitecross road by the junction that feeds to the museum.

RC: Two areas of woodland nearKington had recently received improvement grants from Welsh Authorities. The myforest service promoting sustainable woodland management provides online tools for mapping, recording and creating management plans etc that he thought could be of interest to anyone, including tree wardens. For more info visit

The Spring Greens Fair in May hosted a successful Tree Matter forum event with 30 people and panel. Link to the event notes is on the New Leaf website:

A tree walk w/e with many lovely walks to chose from is planned for 21st/22nd September - details from KINGTON WALKING FESTIVAL:

LG : Archie Miles will be giving a lecture and launching his latest book on ‘The British Oak’ on Friday November 8th - poster of event attached – please circulate. This event is sponsored by the Herefordshire Nature Trust and booking strongly advised.

JS suggested that the Tree Forum might like to consider drawing up a ‘Herefordshire Tree Pallet’ of appropriate local species for people to choose from when designing a planting scheme. Any suggestions on this idea – and any other topics in this report-back will be shared for further discussion.

MB: a meeting had taken place between Stanhope and local businesses with local councillor support to explore developer contribution to design and reinstatement of trees into High Town, Commercial St, and ultimately down Commercial Road.

There were no further developmentson the Highways Agency application to fell 14 mature lime trees within a Conservation area along the A49 corridor /Edgar St.

NEXT MEETINGS: FM/MTinvited all groupmembers who would like to contribute to discussions on developing a Tree Warden network and/or planning 2013 Tree Week programme to come along and help shape the debate at the next Forum Steering Group meetingon 9th July 2.30 pm in Library, Shire Hall, Hereford.

Details of the next HTF event for September will be circulated as soon as confirmed.

FM thanked the Bulmer Foundation for hosting thisevent.

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